Twitter acquires music streaming app

SAN FRANCISCO - Twitter Inc. has acquired We Are Hunted, a small, three-person music streaming startup based in Australia, the two companies said on Thursday.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the purchase appears to reaffirm Twitter’s intent to become a hub for multimedia content distribution.

In the past year, the social network has aggressively expanded its capabilities to carry pictures, videos, and interactive content far richer than the 140-character messages it is best known for.

“There’s no question that Twitter and music go well together,” We Are Hunted said in a statement on its website announcing the acquisition. “Artists turn to Twitter first to connect with fans, and people share and discover new songs and albums every day.”

The company’s founders said they could not reveal what they would do at Twitter. We Are Hunted said its existing service would be shut down.

Twitter declined comment beyond a tweet welcoming We Are Hunted to the company.

The purchase of the music streaming app comes several months after Twitter bought Vine, a small video-sharing service that had not yet launched. Since its official release in January under the aegis of Twitter, Vine has become one of the most popular apps in Apple Inc’s iTunes store, as Twitter users increasingly shared short, 6-second video clips in the form of tweets.